Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed a group of about 200 chiropractors at the International Chiropractors Association’s Symposium on Natural Fitness held in Columbus, Ohio, on March 6, 2010. Each year, the chiropractic profession and the fitness world come together during the Arnold Fitness weekend. Governor Schwarzenegger is a long time proponent of physical fitness, and a long time supporter of chiropractic. The Governor and his family have received chiropractic care for years.
This year marks the 18th year that the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) has held their “Symposium on Natural Fitness” in conjunction with the “Arnold Classic”. For each of those 18 years, Arnold has attended the chiropractic event to speak to chiropractors and take pictures with every chiropractor in attendance. He also gives an address in which he speaks about the benefits of chiropractic and other relevant issues in health and fitness.
During his address, Governor Schwarzenegger enthusiastically showed his support for chiropractic by saying, “What I love about chiropractors, is that you say, OK, we can fix you up when you have an injury and we can help you when you’re sick, we can help you with all kinds of different things. But what you are really saying is in your profession is, look, why don’t you come to us before you get sick, before you have a problem with your back, before you have a problem with your shoulders or elbows.” He continued, “Prevention, it’s all about prevention.”
As Governor Schwarzenegger continued his remarks, he noted that health care reform must contain prevention. He stated, “If you don’t have prevention as a big-big part of the health care reform, you have nothing, you have absolutely nothing!” He continued by pointing out that incentives for healthy living and prevention must be included in health care reform, “This is why I say that prevention is the answer.”
As Governor Schwarzenegger was summing up his comments, he once again linked the chiropractic profession to health and prevention when he said, “We know it (prevention) works. And we know that you (chiropractors) are in the right profession. Because you are really in a profession that saves people money, and it brings the health care costs down. This is what I love about your profession. You are the most incredible profession, you always help people.”